1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microwave oven and, more particularly, to a microwave oven which occupies less space when not in use.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a microwave oven cooks food using microwaves radiated from a magnetron.
FIG. 1 shows a perspective view illustrating a conventional microwave oven.
The microwave oven comprises a main body 10 having an outer case 11 and an inner case 12 defining a cooking chamber 20.
A door 30 for opening and closing the cooking chamber 20 is rotatably mounted on a front side of the inner case 12. A control panel for selecting cooking time and mode is also mounted on the front side of the inner case 12. A cooking tray 21 is disposed on a bottom of the cooking chamber 20.
Disposed between a right plate 12a of the inner case 12 and a right plate 11a of the outer case 11 is an electronic component chamber 40 in which are disposed a magnetron 41 for radiating high frequency microwaves into the cooking chamber 20, and a high voltage transformer 42 for applying high voltage to the magnetron 41. In addition, a cooling fan 43 for forcing air into the electronic component chamber 40 and a guide duct 44 for guiding the air into the cooking chamber 20 are also disposed in the electronic component chamber 40.
In the above described microwave oven, after food to be cooked is disposed within the cooking chamber 20, when the oven is operated by adjusting the control panel 31, the magnetron 41 radiates the high frequency microwaves into the cooking chamber 20.
However, since the electronic component chamber and the cooking chamber are fixedly defined within the main body, a fixed space is required regardless of whether the microwave oven is being used. Therefore, the conventional microwave oven cannot use space efficiently.